Anti-Incineration Mobilization on WeChat: Evidence from 12 WeChat Subscription Accounts

ABSTRACT

The role of social media as a mobilization tool has been widely discussed in the digital age, yet empirical evidence on the online consensus mobilization around environmental issues in a relatively restrictive political setting remains largely unexplored. In this study, my aim is to understand how activists strategically harness social media to take collective initiatives and to stimulate communal awareness against current waste disposal industry and waste management policies in China. Using a content analysis method, I examined 557 posts from 12 anti-incineration WeChat subscription accounts with the help of NVivo software. In reference to social constructionism and social movement theories, I argue that consensus mobilization includes three core undertakings: identification, demonstration, and resolution. Investigating the anti-incineration discourse production on WeChat contributes to a more nuanced comprehension of online mobilization in an authoritarian context. And the results have practical implications for environmental-related activism via social media.

KEYWORDS:

• Consensus mobilization
• social media
• discursive construction
• municipal solid waste incineration
• WeChat

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this work was presented at the 2020 annual conference of International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). The author would like to acknowledge Pierre Hamel, Louis Guay and Grégoire Autin for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. The author is very grateful to the anonymous reviewers for many insightful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 According to Klandermans (1984), social mobilization involves two components: (1) consensus mobilization and (2) action mobilization. With the former, activists persuade potentially mobilizable audiences to support their positions and preferences. Correspondingly, with the latter, activists encourage and stimulate support to join collective action.

2 In framing approach (Snow & Benford, 1988), the process of the attribution of meaning was defined as three steps: diagnostic framing, prognostic framing, and motivational framing. Motivational framing is in alignment with action mobilization illustrated by Klandermans (1984), which is not the concern of this research.

3 Although the anti-incineration community has not become a formal organization, activists are fully connected with each other by meeting and exchanging information regularly. Confirmation from three key activists can, to a great extent, ensure the integrity of the sample.

4 All of the selected WeChat subscription accounts have original Chinese names. I used their English names, if available. Otherwise, I marked their names in pinyin. Since some accounts had changed their names several times, I chose the names used on 20 November 2019.

5 Dioxins are a group of highly toxic chemical compounds.

6 Leachate is a contaminated liquid that drains from incinerators.

7 Fly ash is a fine toxic powder that is a by-product of burning waste in incinerators.

8 Ecological civilization is a philosophical idea that finds harmony between the environment and humanity. It was written into the Chinese constitution in 2018.

9 China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection was superseded by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in 2018.

10 The opposition to a paraxylene (PX) plant happening in Xiamen in 2007 represents the first successful resistance against an unwanted urban infrastructure project in China. The peaceful stroll, invented by activists, has been regarded as a useful repertoire of action and has been imitated hundreds of times at subsequent local protests.